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Friday, May 1, 2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

I guess we should get all the obvious stuff out of the way first. Is it as good as the first one? Is it as fun? Is it darker? I'd say, "Yes!" Alright guys, thanks for reading. That's the entire review.

Seriously though, it's easy to say that Ultron isn't as good as The Avengers. Clearly some of the "wow" factor is gone due to the fact that we've gotten past the idea of even seeing all of these guys on screen together, and a (finally) good Hulk. Ultron does seem less fun somehow, despite having as many one liners.

I feel like Ultron is more of the continuing adventures of The Avengers. An extended Saturday morning cartoon. Ultron has the advantage of familiarity, so we can focus on developing the characters and giving more screen time to people not named Thor or Iron Man.

There's a bit of sequelitis here, with bigger action sequences and the typical raising of the stakes. It is a little darker in tone, but that's probably not a surprise to anyone.

A lot of people seem to forget that the first 40 minutes or so of The Avengers was kinda boring. Not much happens. In Ultron, no time is wasted getting to the action, and there are at least 3-4 extended fighting scenes. There are a few times where there's too much going on, and I would imagine that it would be harder to track it all in 3D. I skipped on the 3D, but will likely check it out on IMAX in the next week or so.

I loved the new additions to the cast, particularly James Spader's voice work as Ultron. For the comic purists, there are few things that'll probably irritate you, but I try not to focus on that kind of stuff anymore.

I hear that Whedon's original cut of this was over 3 hours long and that we're going to get an extended cut with an alternate ending when it comes out on Blu-Ray. I cannot wait for that. I'll probably watch Ultron more on Blu-Ray than I do The Avengers.

So, yeah, I liked it. A lot! If you're a fan, go see it. If you're not, why are you reading this in the first place?